


Stargazers

by LuxKen27



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Post-Canon, Romance, Sexual Content, Shadow Lake, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 08:32:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13678065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuxKen27/pseuds/LuxKen27
Summary: Janine has always loved meteor showers, and this one is particularly memorable.





	Stargazers

**Author's Note:**

> **DISCLAIMER:** The _Baby-sitters Club_ concept, storyline, and characters are © 1986 – 2000 Ann M. Martin/Scholastic Corporation. No money is being made from the creation of this material. No copyright infringement is intended.

~*~

The world was utterly, perfectly, silently still all around them.

The moonless sky was the color of dark velvet, embroidered with thousands of tiny sparkling stars.

The freshly fallen snow from that morning had crystallized in the interim, coating everything in sight with blue-hued frost. Shadow Lake itself was magnificent in the distance, its surface a solid sheet of unbroken ice.

They were curled up together in an Adirondack chair on the deck that wrapped around the Brewer cabin, nestled under the flannel blanket from Charlie’s bed. There was only one other piece of furniture out there that hadn’t been frozen under the thick layer of snow – the table they’d pulled close a couple of hours before, currently laden with Valentine’s treats. Janine had always had a weakness for strawberries, and that taste was well represented: strawberries topped with freshly whipped cream; chocolate-covered strawberries dipped in glaze; strawberry cake with fluffy cream cheese frosting; strawberry flavored sparkling wine; a strawberry-scented potted candle, the only source of visible light beyond the stars in the sky.

This confluence of cake and wine and sugary sweetness had put Charlie in a light slumber, but not her. This was far too exciting a moment for her to even contemplate sleep: in only a few moments’ time, a newly discovered meteor shower originating from the Cassiopeia constellation would begin.

She’d been a stargazer all of her life. She could feel the wonder she’d felt as a child, then as now, watching comets hurtle across the sky and the ensuing meteor showers that came in their wake. She’d contemplated the night sky for hours on end as a kid, gazing through her telescope as she located the heavenly bodies and all 88 of the recognized constellations. It was only natural that she’d concentrated on astrophysics in college, interning at major observatories all over the world, and even landing a year’s post-graduate work at the world-famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The hardest decision she’d ever made was turning down a permanent position there, working on the upcoming mission to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa.

She’d reluctantly returned to the East Coast in order to be close to her aging parents, and had taken up a post in MIT’s observatory. She explained her job to others as “measuring the distance between stars,” but in reality it was so much more than that. She made observations about the entire breadth and depth of the night sky, having made a profession out of doing exactly the same thing that had sparked her curiosity as a child. 

She’d witnessed thousands of major and minor meteor showers, and the passing of hundreds of comets and asteroids over the years. She’d never become jaded or cynical, however; each moment still made her heart skip a beat, still filled her with that same sense of awe and wonder – and made this discovery even more precious.

The Perseids were beloved for their annual late summer showing, with hundreds of shooting stars crossing the sky in any given hour of the night. They were bright and magnificent and celebrated around the world. The idea of a Perseid-like shower in mid-February was incredible to contemplate, but here it was. Cassiopeia was right next to Perseus in the night sky, and promised a similarly spectacular show.

When she mentioned this incredible, unique find to her husband – and explained just how stunning she anticipated it would be – he’d insisted on bringing her to his family’s cabin at Shadow Lake to witness it. It had been a treacherous journey from Cambridge, through snow and ice and practically impassable conditions, but now that they were here, she understood his determination to make the trek. The landscape was absolutely beautiful, under a vast expanse of sky, with no city lights or other distractions to interfere with the view.

Here, in this moment, the world was utterly, perfectly, silently still all around them.

Janine smiled as she snuggled into her husband’s embrace. Charlie was a stargazer too, albeit of a different sort: he worked PR for several off-Broadway theaters in the city, splitting his time between producers, actors, musicians, and the shows themselves. He’d worked on some of the most successful indie campaigns to come out of the theater world over the last couple of years, but had always been careful to maintain his anonymity. He had no interest in becoming as famous as the people he represented; he simply wanted to do the kind of work he enjoyed with a minimum of stress and drama. 

She could appreciate that. 

One thing she was still learning to appreciate was his desire to indulge her. He was so attentive and loving and considerate and romantic – qualities she had never been exposed to for any great length of time, especially not in a single person. It had made her extremely uncomfortable in the beginning, in fact, but once he realized this, he’d reined it in considerably and allowed her time to get used to the idea, and even grow fond of his singular attentions. Their wedding had been small and quiet; their honeymoon, long and indulgent; their married life, settled and strong.

And slowly but surely, their guilty pleasures had simply become pleasures. 

Hence the overload of extravagant strawberry treats, contrasting with their languid embrace in comfy old clothes under a well-worn blanket that smelled faintly of cedar and mothballs.

He was well and truly asleep now, his breathing falling into a soft, regular rhythm, the brace of his arms slackening around her waist. She’d started off the evening in his lap, but had long since stretched her legs out over his, dangling them over the side of the chair, her toes finding a chilly contrast to the warmth of her socks, and the blanket that covered them.

It was well after midnight – a quick check of her watch told her that it was nearly two in the morning, in fact – and the stillness of the air was lulling her senses. She blinked several times, fighting against the natural urge to sleep, when a sudden movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention.

Her eyes darted over, and she saw it again: a lightning-quick flash of light, followed by another, slightly higher in the sky. She exhaled sharply, pushing herself up, digging her elbow into her husband’s ribs. “Wake up,” she whispered urgently. “It’s beginning!”

She felt him rouse beneath her, but was absolutely unable to tear her gaze away from the sky as streaks of light began to radiate from the center of the Cassiopeia constellation. What started as a few faint flashes of light quickly became dozens, shining brightly in hues of yellow and orange and even white. She felt her heart pick up speed and her breath shallow in her chest as her eyes roved around the sky, trying to take it all in at once.

“It’s breathtaking, no?” she sighed dreamily.

“Mmm,” he mused, the sound reverberating through him as he tightened his hold on her while shifting position in the chair.

She paid no heed to his maneuverings, too taken with the magnificent celestial light show playing out directly above them. At some point the candle on the table beside them went out, snuffing the last distraction in her field of vision, serving only to enhance the flashes of light overhead. Every so often, a meteor would burn up in the atmosphere, exploding like a tiny firework, and witnessing such power made her grin like a silly schoolgirl.

She was so focused on the meteor shower, in fact, than she scarcely remembered where she was until she felt the gentle swirl of a finger moving languidly over her clitoris. She gasped, instinctively pressing her thighs together, only to realize that both of her husband’ hands had settled between her legs. He stroked her again, and again, and her belly started to quiver. She cut her eyes over to his face, only to see his eyes riveted to the night sky, his expression one of serenity and enchantment.

She turned her attention back to the meteors, but was unable to completely lose herself in the spectacle as she had before, all too aware of her husband’s teasing fingers. She squirmed in his lap as he continued to play, stroking her clit with one hand while the other slipped down even further inside her underwear, caressing the soft folds beneath her mound of curls with practiced ease.

A wave of heat pulsated through her; her palms grew clammy, sweat beading on her brow, warm and familiar slickness building between her thighs. His hands shifted then, both sets of fingers sliding down to caress her most intimately.

The meteors were thrumming through the air above them, lighting up the sky in clutches, ten or twelve hurtling across the celestial terrain together. Her heart was throbbing against her ribs in a similar cadence as she opened her legs to this welcome touch, and he dipped a finger inside her.

She moaned softly, pressing her hips back into his, and was rewarded with the realization that he, too, was fully aroused, the long, hard length of him rubbing against her through the barrier of his clothing. She smiled, leaning into him again, her hands finding and curling around the arms of the chair. She leveraged herself up, skimming her backside over his groin and eliciting a groan from deep in his throat. He plunged another finger into the depths of her core in response, and he used his legs to push himself up in the seat of the chair, his body following the movements of hers.

She struggled to keep her eyes open, to focus on the glittery lights still streaking across the sky in ever-growing numbers as her hips rose to meet the thrusts of his hands. She gasped when she felt him nip at her earlobe.

“Yes, love,” he murmured, his tone velvety smooth and enticing, his breath warm on the shell of her ear, “I know how much this excites you. Don’t stop there, my sweet – you know what I want…”

Heat and desire pooled in the cradle of her pelvis like liquid honey; she gripped the arms of the chair, sweat pouring from her brow even in the midst of the subfreezing temperatures. She was on the cusp of an orgasm, and though he knew very well how to push her off the cliff, he withheld it from her, until the teasing became almost torturous.

“Please,” she whispered, her lead lolling back on his shoulder, her eyes rolling back and finally falling closed. “Oh – _please_!” 

He relented, and complied, both of his thumbs rising and roughly fondling her clit, and she found her release with a long, soft, quiet sigh. 

She fell back into the cradle of his body, her eyes fluttering open just as the last of the meteors winked away into the darkness.


End file.
